Tune in here to this Thursday edition of the Brett Winterble Show!

On September 11, 2001, the United States experienced the deadliest terrorist attack in its history. Twenty-four years later, the memory of that day remains etched into the soul of the nation. Nearly 3,000 lives were lost in a matter of hours—2,753 in New York City, 184 at the Pentagon, and 40 aboard Flight 93 in Pennsylvania. Among the fallen were 343 firefighters, 71 law enforcement officers, and 55 military personnel. In the years since, hundreds more have died from illnesses linked to rescue and recovery efforts. The toll continues to grow, and the heartbreak never truly ends.

This year, Holy Trinity Catholic Middle School in Charlotte, North Carolina, commemorated the anniversary not with silence, but with prayer. Students and staff gathered to celebrate a Living Rosary—a solemn and sacred act of remembrance. Each bead represented a soul, each prayer a light in the darkness. It was not merely a ritual; it was a reckoning. A healing. A way to pass on memory through faith.

Among those who participated was Sherrilyn Winterble, a staff member who had been in New York on that fateful day. Her testimony was not drawn from textbooks or documentaries—it came from lived experience. She had seen the smoke, felt the fear, and heard the silence that follows a scream. And yet, she stood before the next generation to say, “I was there. And I still believe.” Her voice was not just a reflection of the past; it was a legacy for the future.
The children who prayed that day were not alive when the towers fell. They did not witness the chaos, the unity, or the sorrow. But through the Living Rosary, they became stewards of that memory. They held the beads. They listened to the stories. They prayed for the souls lost and for the strength to carry forward. In doing so, they inherited a sacred responsibility: to remember, to honor, and to build a better future.

In the aftermath of 9/11, America was united. Flags flew from porches, strangers embraced in the streets, and churches overflowed with prayer. But unity born of tragedy is fragile. It must be nurtured, not assumed. The question we face today is not whether we will be united again if tragedy strikes—it is whether we can choose unity before tragedy returns.
The answer lies not in politics or policy, but in places like Holy Trinity. In classrooms and churches. In quiet acts of remembrance. In voices like Sherrilyn’s. In prayers like the Living Rosary.

September 11 is not just a date on the calendar. It is a legacy we carry. A call to remember. A challenge to rise. And this year, in Charlotte, that legacy was honored with grace, with reverence, and with hope.

Let the beads guide us. Let the stories shape us. Let the prayers strengthen us. Because evil cannot erase memory. And faith will always outlast fear.

Check out our memorial video here: Patriot Day

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